Does it count if I read it first then ignored it????

 

I guess it still counts. I plan on editing it at some point and posting my pictures, etc

 

Ok I'll look forward to watching it progress!

 

Sorry to post in your thread but I think it's a good idea. Murman does it and I try as well when I can. He posts most of his stuff on one thread which is easy to find and it's all in one place. Sorry Murman, didn't want to put you on the spot. Looking forward to see the progress.

 

You could name it "mrjeepr44's travels".

 

hahaha... I guess I could. Mostly I was thinking of using the first post to put pictures and info, then I am going to put a link to it in my signature. It is nice to think of having my own little space though

 

It is nice to think of having my own little space though

I think that's called geocities

 

You waxed it????? You waxed a Jeep???? You're supposed to get mud on them; not wax them. Scion owners wax their cars. Don't you know anything about Jeeps????

 

Haha... well naturally I want it to look nice when I do wash that mud off

I really like the Mineral Gray. I have Brilliant Black and would typically never get black, but I think it looks really good on the Patriot and this particular model had what I was looking for with the power group, FDII/off-road pkg and good price.

Nice ride man.

I agree, I don't like keeping up with black, but it does look really good on the Patriot. I bet it has to do with the contrasting colors of the wheels and headlights/fog lights. Nice choice yourself, and thanks for the compliments. One of these days, I'll take the pictures with an actual camera instead of my phone

 

I really like the Mineral Gray. I have Brilliant Black and would typically never get black, but I think it looks really good on the Patriot and this particular model had what I was looking for with the power group, FDII/off-road pkg and good price.

Nice ride man.

 

Well this weekend I made a trip up to see my parents. To avoid Labor Day traffic, I stayed off of the interstate and found a rural highway to get me 70% of the way up there. With a 20 mph head wind, I was able to squeeze out 22.2 MPG on the way up, and taking the same route on the return trip I averaged just over 24 MPG in my FDII. I got back with 280 miles on the trip odometer and the low fuel light hadn't even come on yet. The EVIC was showing 45 mile range left when I filled up.

I hope to take care of an issue with one of my tires pulling, and once that is taken care of I think my gas mileage will improve.

 

I've been getting anywhere from 21.8 - 23 mpg. But I do a lot of city driving mixed in with a long highway commute.

I'm really happy with it so far, even with the alignment and axle thing.

 

My latest accesory

We'll be out exploring this weekend, so this will probably come in handy :smiley_thumbs_up:

Fully expanded, it fits perfectly with the seats all the way forward. $40 Coleman SUV airbed

 

We'll be out exploring this weekend, so this will probably come in handy :smiley_thumbs_up:

Fully expanded, it fits perfectly with the seats all the way forward.

So how'd it work out? Was thinking about doing something similar.

 

MMmmm!!! That´s dangerous, may be a new little Patriot in 9 months... Have a nice weekend and tell us how it was, but not all the details...LOLLLLLLL

 

Ha... not that kind of exploring. More like the... out in the middle of no where and don't know where we'll end up, kind of exploring. I don't want to sleep on the hard floor

 

I'm curious as well. I was thinking doing the same thing instead of taking a tent but wasn't sure if it'd be comfortable.

 

I've slept in the back on several camping trips in the year that I've had 'er. I CANNOT stand airbeds, so picked up a twin bed-sized, 2inch thick high-density foam from a foam store like Foam Factory. (Do NOT get egg crate.) Fits between the wheel-wells PERFECTLY, like mrJeepr44's air mattress. Its really comfortable, but I'm still thinking of getting another inch-thick sheet of this stuff, or a self inflating air mat for underneath--for the female's comfort. As they say, when she's happy... yada yada, eh hem, cough

Sooooo much better than sleepin' on the ground, I'm never using the tent agin!

My foam definitely does NOT fold up as well as an air mattress, or roll up as well as an self-inflating air mat, but its damn comfy! Rolled up, it does fit standing upright behind the driver's seat and into the back left seat's footwell without interfering with vision when driving. Might have been a better idea to have gotten two or three one-inch thick pieces, might have rolled up and stored more easily.

When solo, I sleep head towards the back, when sleeping two, its roomier to have heads towards the front, in which case, it helps to have the fold flat front passenger seat (great feature!) and a height-impaired significant-other, cuz of the driver's seat, and you'd need to use something to fill the gap between front and back seats if you sleep this direction. I'l actually been thinking of building a kinda a 'table' to fill that gap, with screw-in legs. Planning on it being sturdy enough to be able to serve as an off-roading sand/mud ladder in a 'mergency.

oh, and definitely need to crack a window an inch on each side, or you'll wake to alot of condensation. I've been concerned about carbon dioxide levels, but survived a night I forgot to roll down the window--but that was solo--am very sure their ain't enough air for two when its sealed up. A bit of mosquito netting over the windows is a good idea, I use cheap hardware store magnets to stick it to the door. I'm kinda bear-paranoid, and thinking about some kind of steel mesh on the inside and outside of the window instead, a bit bigger than the opening and clamped or tightened together . Just want a few extra seconds to wake up and fumble for the bear spray if I ever get the visit. Don't want to first wake up from the sound of the bear pulling out the window. I'd feel freer to have the window open alot more... or as an alternative, have been thinkin' of gettin' one of those van roof-vents installed... seems alot cheaper than gettin' a moon roof...

Oh, and yer gonna wanna park 'er just so, to get a semi-level bed-surface--surprising to me how little angle it takes to really screw this up, particularly side-to-side. Kept waking up night with my face planted right into the Boston speaker cover, and couldnt manage to get away from it, just kept sliding back into it overnight!

 

I've not done this in the Patriot, yet, but have an air mattress for the bed in my pick-up. Don;t do that as much as we used to though, and only used it once this year.

I put the head of the mattress toward the cab of the truck, and like my head slightly higher than my feet, but the rest as level as can be.

I also use an air mattress in the tent if tenting too.

 

Good to hear, sounds about like what we were thinking. We thought through the same issues of space, convenience, comfort, etc. compared to a tent and using the Pat seemed to made the most sense. We'll probably get a Rocket Box or some kind of roof carrier to store all stuff we usually take.

Phineas and Dixie, thanks for the input. Maybe all this info should become a sticky for Patriot camping.

 

Much drier than a tent!

 

Agreed, as long as the roof doesn't leak. If it does then you need a tent to drive the Patriot into. lol!

 

Well my MPG's seem to be improving now that I no longer have a screwy tire. My last tank was over 24 mpg, and that included some sitting and idling the engine for the A/C while we were parked. We did have a 15 MPH tail wind for the highway portion of the trip, but still, including the time idling.... I am impressed. I hope to see 26+ some day. 280 Miles before the fuel light came on.... not too shabby for a FDII

 

I polished and waxed my Jeep this weekend, and finally took some hi res photo's with a decent camera. They are the top three in my sig post now

 

nice pictures. sorry if I missed it - is yours lifted? I assume so and if so what kind of lift did you get?

in addition if so, any challenges with the lift? alignment issues? how many miles on it since? could you describe the difference in the riding ability from when you first got it to it now?

 

Thanks John. That is actually stock. It is the FDII with no real mods... stock suspension, stock tires

Sent from my HTC using AutoGuide App

 

Oil change

Well after several trips to Oklahoma and a recent trip to Colorado and Utah, My Oil Change reminder light came on at 7,485 miles. I am now at 7,800 and able to change it today. I am pleased it's finally telling me I should change at 8,000 miles. I've got close to 21,000 miles on the Jeep now and this is oil change #5

Other than the factory oil, my Jeep has had nothing but 5-w20 Mobil1. I have seen 0-30 AFE, but don't really like the idea of jumping up to a 30 when 5-w20 is right on the oil cap. Today when I was buying oil, I saw they were carrying 0w-20 AFE so I'll be using that today. I am not sure why I have never seen it before... I did a search and found this thread which is 2 years old and they were using it then.

I'll also be rotating my tires and finally treating the rust I noticed last summer. Hopefully it's not too far gone...

 

Well before I changed the oil, I cleared out the EVIC and drove 6 miles. The EVIC average got up to 26.8 MPG before the final hill climb, and by the time I parked it said 25.5MPG.

After changing to 0w20 AFE, going the same route before the final hill climb it got up to 28.7 MPG. Unfortunately the second trip I hit two really long stop lights, and by the time I parked EVIC said 24.5.

The stop lights threw things off, but after the oil change the MPG was about 2 MPG higher at the same hill as the previous trip. The biggest problem with this test is that there were a lot of hills to go down. Usually I don't get 25.5 MPG, so I am not sure how accurate of a comparison it is. If only I could take this 6 mile drive to work..... I go a different direction with lower MPGs

 

Today I got some black Plasti-dip to go over my dark grey plastic cladding and the non painted parts of the bumpers. I also got some Rustoleum High Temp paint in black to go over my muffler, which was painted at the factory and is already fading and changing colors from heat. I was going to get VHT, but they were out of black. The VHT stuff I saw was rated to 900° while the Rustoleum is rated to 2000° so it ought to work. They also had Rustoleum Engine paint which was rated to 500° and the BBQ paint was something like 1300°

I'll try to get some photos up later

 

Today I got some black Plasti-dip to go over my dark grey plastic cladding and the non painted parts of the bumpers. I also got some Rustoleum High Temp paint in black to go over my muffler, which was painted at the factory and is already fading and changing colors from heat. I was going to get VHT, but they were out of black. The VHT stuff I saw was rated to 900° while the Rustoleum is rated to 2000° so it ought to work. They also had Rustoleum Engine paint which was rated to 500° and the BBQ paint was something like 1300°

I'll try to get some photos up later

Same here...:doh: